VOX POPULI

Jeanette Almada. Special to the TribuneCHICAGO TRIBUNE

Two substantial residential projects are being planned for the Near West Side, adding to the already aggressive pace of residential redevelopment that has manifested itself in the area in the last few years.

The projects are going up in a community headed by an alderman, Walter Burnett (27th), who cautiously touts that no developer builds in his ward without satisfying concerns of his community residents. Simultaneously he encourages quality developers to check his area out.

After nine months of negotiations with the community's residents, the Kaiser Development Group has firsthand experience in the kind of community discussion that goes into building in Burnett's portion of the Near West Side these days.

"We went through nine months of negotiations with the community, and went through four designs to get the project approved," said Michael Vdovets, one of the principals of the Kaiser Development Group.

The result: the developer will build 67 condominium units in a 13-story building with 3,000 square feet of ground floor retail space at 720 W. Randolph St.

"In some ways it was painful and extended our planning by four or five months. But I do believe that the process overall yielded improvements to our original design and we felt it was worth the effort," Vdovets said.

"This community offers potential and the city urged us to build a Cadillac of a building. They wanted quality and down the road we would like to find a location in that community, where we might build a Lakeshore Athletic Club as well," he said.

The Kaiser Development Group includes Vdovets, who has experience in developing mixed-used properties throughout the country, and partner Jordan Kaiser, who has developed such properties as 1515 North Astor, 1313 North Ritchie Court and several Lake Shore Athletic Clubs.

To be called City View Tower, the group's latest project will include one-bedroom and two-bedroom condominiums on the 5th through 11th floors. The units will range from 840- to 900-square-foot one-bedroom plans that will sell for prices around $175,000, to two-bedroom designs that will sell for $250,000 to $300,000.

Vdovets said all of the units will include city views, 8-foot balconies and bay windows.

Customized penthouses, 6,000 and 7,000 square feet, will be built on the top two floors. Vdovets said they will include terraces rather than balconies, and other amenities.

In recent weeks, Kaiser completed demolition of two buildings that stood vacant for years on the parcel, a site just west of the Kennedy Expressway ramp and on the north side of Randolph Street. Vdovets said that he hopes construction will begin by fall.

He expects the building to be ready for occupancy by early 2002. The project will be marketed from the Kaiser Development Group headquarters in Northbrook over coming months.

In another development several blocks west of the Randolph Street project, Metro Developers LLC will build 321 residential units at 1500 West Monroe.

The partnership combines local developers Charles Cornelius and Ted Mazola. Both know their way around the community approval gauntlet.

"If we know by going through this process that community organizations, alderman and others are pleased, we also know that it will ultimately help our project sell faster. It is a painful process but its results are positive," said Cornelius. He added that since the first phase units went on sale last November they have sold vigorously.

Metro will build one-bedroom to three-bedroom condos in two buildings. The first 175 units will be built in an existing seven-story loft building to be rehabbed in coming months. They will be mostly one and two bedroom units.

Several three-bedroom units will be built on two floors to be added at the eastern portion of the existing building and will be marketed to families.

Following that rehab the developer will build another 146 units in a new nine-story building. The units are already being marketed from an on-site sales office, for prices ranging from $99,000 to $600,000.

Both projects were approved by the Plan Commission earlier this month and by the Zoning Committee last week.